Minnesota's medical marijuana manufacturing companies have lost $11 million in just two years of sales.

According to financial documents obtained by the Associated Press, LeafLine Labs said it lost $4.7 million last year and $2.2 million in 2015.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Medical Solutions recorded a $1.2 million loss in 2016 and a $3 million loss in 2015.

"From a financial perspective, 2016 was a much better year than 2015," a spokesperson with MinnMed said in an e-mail Monday evening. "Revenues increased from less than $500,000 to more than $2 million, while losses decreased from approximately $3 million to $1 million."

Groupe DJB and Neptune Technologies & Bioressources (NASDAQ:NEPT)(TSX:NEPT), in collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke, are proud to announce the creation of the Sherbrooke-based Green Valley Consortium, a strategic partnership that combines the strengths and expertise of three industry stakeholders to carry out medical cannabis production and research and development activities: an industry first. 

Sherbrooke Innopole, the region's economic development agency, and the city of Sherbrooke have both been highly active in the establishment of the Green Valley consortium, consistent with their mandate to foster a vibrant economic and academic environment in the region.

PayPal executive Dave Peck is moving to the cannabis industry where he will be the first CMO of Kind Financial, a company that specializes in end-to-end technology and compliance solutions. 

Peck was previously global head of social and digital media marketing at PayPal. At Kind Financial, his responsibilities will include the development and execution of direct response marketing, social and digital campaigns, and all aspects of public relations and communications. 

When he returned from war in 2004, veteran Roberto Pickering was diagnosed as 100 percent disabled from posttraumatic stress disorder. "Who I am today, I'm a normal guy until you peel the onion back," he says. "It's taken me 13 years to get to this point. I'm no longer on prescription pills, no longer using alcohol. I taught myself nutrition, I'm now a full vegan, practicing Buddhist. I went full circle from a marine sniper." 

Cannabis played no small role in Pickering's recovery process. Now his goal is to help other vets suffering from trauma and other war injuries use cannabis to get better. For some vets, cannabis can serve not only as a medical treatment, but as a professional endeavor to get them back on their feet.

New Mexico’s medical cannabis industry has grown into a powerful magnet for money and customers.

Customers, sales revenue and dispensaries have exploded the past year with a total of more than 40,000 people now signed up to purchase medical marijuana.

Since Jan. 1, some 8,000 New Mexicans obtained a state-issued license that allows them to legally buy pot, pushing patient enrollment to 40,432 in April. With the recent growth spurt, enrollment has increased by 84 percent since March 2016.

The number of dispensaries increased from 36 in January 2016 to 56 in April, with new dispensaries popping up in smaller cities, such as Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis, Carlsbad, Artesia and Taos.

And that has helped fuel an impressive sales growth over the past year.

One Florida retailer is selling buds for vaporizer use only - but those same flowers could just as easily be rolled up and smoked.

“First-mover advantage.” Why Canadian weed producers will dominate the global marijuana market.

In marketing strategy, there’s a term called “first-mover advantage”. It’s when a few key players in a particular industry gain an advantage because they entered into the marketplace first. These companies are able to establish strong brand recognition, shore up the best sources of funding, and build a loyal customer base simply because there aren’t any competitors in the way during their first few years of operation. 

Farmers in the historic wine country of California are looking to a new crop to bring in larger profits. Cannabis, like wine, needs clean soil and air to grow the lush, beautiful, buds that every connoisseur has come to know and love. Luckily, the grape fields of Northern California provide the ideal atmosphere for cannabis farming. Not only are farmers clearing space to make room for more of the new-age cash crop, they’re transforming their mindset and skills to help cultivate the plant that might be their largest earner yet.

Nevada’s recreational marijuana industry is expected to bring $1.1 billion in revenue and up to 40,000 jobs over the next eight years, per a 2016 study from Las Vegas-based RCG Economics. While regulations are still being hashed out by the Legislature and Department of Taxation, marijuana businesses foresee potential employees flocking.

What employers look for

Four local marijuana business owners were surveyed, saying that while the new recreational industry will bring more jobs, demand for those openings at dispensaries, production facilities and testing labs is extremely high.